During the address that opened the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, US President Donald Trump said he would decide between a deal with Iran and ‘annihilating the Islamic Republic’; as he began speaking about US military operations, Iran’s delegation walked out of the hall, leaving a single lower-level staff member behind, according to Al Jazeera.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei confirmed the partial walkout and told the Iranian state news agency IRNA that one diplomat from Iran’s mission stayed in the room because the delegation attended at foreign minister level, according to ANI. Baghaei said the US administration turns the Assembly into a stage for military threats that are ‘absolutely illegal, contrary to international law and diplomatic custom’, and called the threat of a military attack ‘an admission of committing international crimes’. Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, cited by Al Jazeera, reported that Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accepted a meeting requested by US envoy Steve Witkoff to restate Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz: an immediate end to the naval blockade, the release of frozen Iranian assets and an end to the war. Al Jazeera notes that accounts differ over whether the two delegations met directly.